USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley; gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic sources > Part 28
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The sacred pipe was again kindled, and presented, figuratively, to the heavens and the earth, and to all the good spirits, as witness of what had been done. The Indians and the white men then closed the council by smoking the pipe and shaking hands. With no ma- terial variation, either of the forms that were observed, or with the speeches that were made at this council, Col. Clark and his officers concluded treaties of peace with the Piankeshaws, Ouiatenons, Kick- apoos, Illinois, Kaskaskias, Peorias, and branches of some other tribes that inhabited the country between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi.
Gov. Henry soon received intelligence of the successful progress of the expedition under the command of Clark. The French inhab- itants of the villages of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Post Vincennes took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia.
In October, 1778, the General Assembly of the State of Virginia passed an act which contained the following provisions, viz : All the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia " who are already settled or shall hereafter settle on the western side of the Ohio, shall be in- cluded in a distinct county, which shall be called Illinois county ; 17
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
and the governor of this commonwealth, with the advice of the council, may appoint a county lieutenant, or commandant-in-chief, in that county, during pleasure, who shall appoint and commission so many deputy commandants, militia officers and commissaries as he shall think proper in the different districts, during pleasure ; all of whom, before they enter into office, shall take the oath of fidelity to this commonwealth and the oath of office, according to the form of their own religion. And all civil officers to which the inhabit- ants have been accustomed, necessary for the preservation of the peace and the administration of justice, shall be chosen by a major- ity of the citizens in their respective districts, to be convened for that purpose by the county lieutenant, or commandant, or his deputy, and shall be commissioned by the said county lieutenant or com- mandant-in-chief."
Before the provisions of the law were carried into effect, Henry Hamilton, the British lieutenant-governor of Detroit, collected an army, consisting of about thirty regulars, fifty French volunteers, and four hundred Indians. With this force he passed down the River Wabash, and took possession of Post Vincennes on the 15th of December, 1778. No attempt was made by the population to defend the town. Capt. Helm was taken and detained as a prisoner, and a number of the French inhabitants disarmed.
Clark was aware that Gov. Hamilton, now that he had regained possession of Vincennes, would undertake the capture of his forces, and realizing his danger, he determined to forestall Hamilton and capture the latter. His plans were at once formed. He sent a por- tion of his available force by boat, called The Willing, with instruc- tions to Capt. Rogers, the commander, to proceed down the Missis- sippi and up the Ohio and Wabash, and secrete himself a few miles below Vincennes, and prohibit any persons from passing either up or down. With another part of his force he marched across the country, through prairies, swamps and marshes, crossing swollen streams -- for it was in the month of February, and the whole country was flooded from continuous rains - and arriving at the banks of the Wabash near St. Francisville, he pushed across the river and brought his forces in the rear of Vincennes before daybreak. So secret and rapid were his movements that Gov. Hamilton had no notice that Clark had left Kaskaskia. Clark issued a notice requiring the people of the town to keep within their houses, and declaring that all persons found elsewhere would be treated as enemies. Tobacco's Son tendered one hundred of his Piankashaw braves, himself at their head. Clark declined their services with thanks, saying his
259
SURRENDER OF HAMILTON.
own force was sufficient. Gov. Hamilton had just completed the fort, consisting of strong block-houses at each angle, with the cannon placed on the upper floors, at an elevation of eleven feet from the surface. The works were at once closely invested. The ports were so badly cut, the men on the inside could not stand to their cannon for the bullets that would whiz from the rifles of Clark's sharp- shooters through the embrasures whenever they were suffered for an instant to remain open.
The town immediately surrendered with joy, and assisted at the siege. After the first offer to surrender upon terms was declined, Hamilton and Clark, with attendants, met in a conference at the Catholic church, situated some eighty rods from the fort, and in the afternoon of the same day, the 24th of February, 1779, the fort and garrison, consisting of seventy-five men, surrendered at discretion .* The result was that Hamilton and his whole force were made prison- ers of war. + Clark held military possession of the northwest until the close of the war, and in that way it was secured to our country. At the treaty of peace, held at Paris at the close of the revolutionary war, the British insisted that the Ohio River should be the northern boundary of the United States. The correspondence relative to that treaty shows that the only ground on which "the American commis- sioners relied to sustain their claim that the lakes should be the boundary was the fact that Gen. Clark had conquered the country, and was in the undisputed military possession of it at the time of the negotiation. This fact was affirmed and admitted, and was the chief ground on which British commissioners reluctantly abandoned their claim."}
*Two days after the Willing arrived, its crew much mortified because they did not share in the victory, although Clark commended them for their diligence. Two days before Capt. Rogers' arrival with the Willing, Clark had dispatched three armed boats, under charge of Capt. Helm and Majors Bosseron and Le Grass, up the Wabash, to intercept a fleet which Clark was advised was on its way from Detroit, laden with supplies for Gov. Hamilton at Vincennes. About one hundred and twenty miles up the river the British boats, seven in number, having aboard military supplies of the value of ten thousand pounds sterling money and forty men, among whom was Philip De Jean, a magistrate of Detroit, were captured by Capt. Helm. The writer has before him the statement of John McFall, born near Vincennes in 1798. He lived near and in Vincennes until 1817. His grandfather, Ralph Mattison, was one of Clark's soldiers who accompanied Helm's expedition up the Wabash, and he often told McFall, his grandson, that the British were lying by in the Vermilion River, near its mouth, where they were surprised in the night-time and captured by Helm without firing a shot.
+ This march, from its daring conception, and the obstacles encountered and over- come, is one of the most thrilling events in our history, and it is to be regretted that the limited space assigned to other topics precludes its insertion.
# Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 77.
-
CHAPTER XXIV.
Col. Clark having captured Gov. Hamilton's forces at Vincennes, and reestablished the authority of Virginia over the northwest terri- tory, Col. John Todd, commissioned as lieutenant for the county of Illinois, in the spring of 1779 proceeded to Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and organized a government under the act of the General Assembly of Virginia of October, 1778, for the establishing of "Illinois county." Col. Todd formed courts of justice, and provided other machinery to secure peace and good order among the inhabitants.
The northwest territory soon became a source of trouble to the continental congress. Besides the claims of Virginia, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut asserted title to portions of it by virtue of their ancient charters. These conflicting claims were the subjects of much discussion and legislative action in the states named, and by congress as well. Congress, on the 6th of September, 1780, requested the several states "having claims to waste and unappro- priated lands in the western country to cede a portion thereof to the United States." Virginia, on the 2d of January, 1781, released her claim to the northwest territory, reserving one hundred and fifty thousand acres near the falls of the Ohio, which she had promised to Gen. Clark, and the officers and soldiers of his regiment who marched with him, and preserving to the French and Canadian inhabitants of Kaskaskia, Vincennes and neighboring villages their titles to the lands claimed by them. However, owing to conditions imposed by the terms of cession, further legislation intervened, and the Virginia delegates did not execute the deed of release until the 1st of March, 1784. New York followed Virginia, and ceded her claim on the 1st of March, 1781; then Massachusetts, on the 18th of April, 1785, executed her release, and on the 14th of September, 1786, the Connecticut delegates delivered a deed of cession.
The provision-the ordinance of 1787-contains relative to a subdivision of the territory is, " that there shall be formed in said territory no less than three nor more than five states ; the western state to be bounded by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Wabash rivers ; a direct line drawn from the Wabash and Post St. Vincent due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada, and [west] by said territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The middle state shall be bounded by the said
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GOV. HARRISON.
direct line, the Wabash from Post St. Vincent to the Ohio; by the Ohio, and by a direct line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami to said territorial line. The eastern state shall be bounded by the last-mentioned direct line, the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line." The act provided "that the bound- aries of these three states should be subject to alteration if congress should find it expedient," with "authority to form one or two states in that part of the territory lying north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." The wording of the proviso, and a want of means for a correct geographical knowledge of the lake region, led to a sharp contro- versy in adjusting the boundaries of the two additional states.
Peace being secured, emigration poured into Ohio so rapidly, extending itself westward to the Great Miami, that at the beginning of the year 1800 the population was nearly sufficient to entitle the territory to be advanced to the second grade of government. Ac- cordingly, on the 7th of May of that year congress passed an act for a division of the territory, to take effect on the 4th day of the following July.
By this act all that part of the Northwest Territory lying " to the westward of a line beginning at the Ohio, opposite the mouth of Kentucky river, and running from thence to Fort Recovery, and thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line between the United States and Canada, shall for the purposes of temporary gov- ernment constitute a separate territory, to be called the Indiana Territory."
Gen. Wm. H. Harrison was appointed governor. The governor reached Vincennes early in the year 1801, having been preceded thither by the secretary the previous July.
Early in 1806 Gov. Harrison was advised that a Shawnee Indian had set himself up as a prophet. This man pretended to foretell future events, declared that he was invulnerable to the arms or shot of his enemy, and he promised the same inviolability to those of his followers who would devote themselves entirely to his service, and assist him in the cause which he had espoused. This new light dawned upon the Indians at Greenville, Ohio, in the person of " Lol-a-waw- chic-ka," or the Loud Voice, brother of Tecumseh. The Prophet, the name by which he was generally designated, soon gathered about him a large number of followers, composed of a few Shawnee war- riors of his own tribe and numerous persons from other tribes, many of whom had fled for their crimes.
In the spring of 1808 the Prophet and his adherents moved from
-
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Greenville and took up their abode on the Wabash, near the mouth of the Tippecanoe, on a tract of land claimed to have been granted them by the Pottawatomies and Kickapoos, without the consent of the Miamis, who were the rightful owners.
The Prophet was merely a screen, behind which his brother, Tecum- seh, a man of much more ability, was perfecting a confederation of all the tribes in a grand scheme of hostility against the people of the United States, and involving no less than a bold attempt to check the westward advance of white emigration and the recovery of all pre- viously ceded lands north and westward of the Ohio.
The Prophet becoming bolder every day, at last, in the month of April, 1809, required his followers "to take up the hatchet against the white people, to destroy the inhabitants of Vincennes and those on the Ohio, who lived as low down as its mouth and as high up as Cincin- nati, telling them that the Great Spirit had ordered them to do this, and that their refusal would result in their own destruction." A number of Chippeways, Ottawas and Pottawatomies were so alarmed at this bold avowal that they hurried away from the Prophet. The estimated force of the Prophet at this time was from six to eight hundred men.
The boldness and insolence of the assemblage at the Prophet's town increased daily. Finally Gov. Harrison received orders to proceed to the Prophet's town with a military force, which he was only to use after all efforts to effect a peaceable dispersion of its occupants had failed. The governor left Vincennes on the 26th of September, 1811, with a force of nine hundred effective men. On the 3d of October the army, moving up on the east side of the Wabash, reached a place on the bank of the stream some two miles above the old Wea village of We-au-ta-no, "The Risen Sun," called by many the " Old Orchard Town," and time out of mind, by the early French traders, Terre Haute. Here the gov- ernor halted, according to his instructions, within the boundary of the country already ceded by the Indians, and occupied his time in erecting a fort, while waiting the return of messengers whom he had dispatched to the Prophet's town, demanding the surrender of murderers, and the return of stolen horses shel- tered there, and requiring that the Shawnees, Winnebagocs, Potta- watomies and Kickapoos collected there should disperse and re- turn to their own tribes. The messengers were treated with great insolence by the Prophet and his counsel, who, to put an end to all hopes of peace, sent out a small war party to precipitate hostilities. The new fort was finished on the 28th of October, and by the
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FORT HARRISON.
unanimous request of all the officers it was christened " Fort Har- rison."
On the 29th of October Gov. Harrison moved up the Wabash, crossing Raccoon creek at Armiesburg, and ferrying his army over the Wabash at the mouth of the former stream on boats sent up the river for that purpose. The army encamped on the 2d of November some two miles below the mouth of the Big Vermilion, and about a mile below the encampment a block-house, partly jutting over the river, twenty-five feet square, was erected on the edge of a small prairie sloping down to the water's edge. The block-house was garrisoned with a sergeant and eight men, in whose charge were left
FORT HARRISON IN 1812.
the boats which up to this time had been used for the transportation of supplies. On the 3d the army left the block-house, crossed the Vermilion and entered the prairies, the route passing just east of State Line city ; from thence to Crow's Grove, where the army went into camp for the night.
On the 5th the army encamped within nine miles of the Prophet's town. The 6th was consumed in working the army over the diffi- cult ground toward the Indian town. The night of the 6th was spent a short distance from the town, but the governor decided not to jeopardize huis men, and therefore delayed, for the purpose of deter- mining the exact position of the enemy. Early in the morning, however, the Prophet and his followers approached stealthily and surprised the army. A hard fought battle followed, in which both
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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
parties stubbornly contested the ground. The Indians were repulsed, however, and completely routed, retreating into a marsh where the army could not follow. The predictions of the Prophet, on which his followers had relied, that the white man's bullets should not harm them, so utterly disappointed them that, while their regard for Gov. Harrison and his army was greatly heightened, their confidence in their leader was totally destroyed, and subsequently, writes Gen. Harrison, " the frontiers never enjoyed more perfect repose."
The troubles between the United States and England were not yet at an end however, and Tecumseh availed himself of the sym- pathy and support of the latter government to plan sieges of Forts Harrison and Wayne simultaneously. His plans, though well formed, were unavailing ; as in the former case, the Indians having attacked and attempted to burn the fort were repulsed with loss, while the latter was relieved by Gen. Harrison.
Upon the restoration of peace, immigration received a new im- pulse. Indiana, having sufficiently increased her population, was, on the 11th of December, 1816, admitted as a state in the Union.
The campaigns of Harmar, Scott, Wilkinson, St. Clair, Wayne and Harrison gave the volunteers a knowledge of the beauty and fertility of the western country, and may well be said to have been so many exploring expeditions. As soon as the Indian titles to the several portions of the territory were successively extinguished, population poured in, often in advance of the government surveys. The Ohio and the Mississippi were the base, and the Illinois, the Wabash, the Miami, and their tributaries, with their principal streams, were the supporting columns upon which the settlements respectively formed and gradually extended themselves to the right and left from these waters until the intervening country was filled.
Within little more than half a century population has extended itself northward over the states of Indiana and Illinois, and counties have been organized like the blocks of a building, one upon the other, until now those hitherto wild and uninhabited wastes com- prise the most wealthy, enterprising and populous portions of these two states.
The order in which these counties were organized and filled can be more properly carried forward in their respective county histories in an unbroken continuity from the place where the writer now bids the reader a hearty good-bye.
PUBLIC L'EMARY
ASTOR; I - TILDEN TON NATIONS R L
MAP OF MONTGOMERY
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
BY P. S. KENNEDY.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
Montgomery county occupies a part of the great and fertile valley. of the Wabash river. It is bounded north by Tippecanoe; east by Clinton, Boone and Hendricks; south by Putnam and Parke; and west by Fountain and Parke counties. It is twenty-four miles north and south, twenty-one miles east and west, and contains 504 square miles or 332,560 acres. From a thorough and minute geological survey of the county, made by Prof. John Collett, assistant State Geologist, in the year 1875, we learn, among many other important facts, that the drainage of the whole county takes direction from the dip of the underlying rocks, which is a little west of southwest. The main stream of the county is Sugar creek, formerly called Rock river, on account of the vast ledges of rock that tower above its waters at many points. It enters the county a little south of the northeast corner, and meandering through the central areas passes out six miles north of the southwest corner. There is not another stream in the state which presents to the eye grander scenery than Sugar creek ; and much of it has already been rendered famous by the genius of a young Crawfordsville artist, Walter Sies, whose land- scape paintings are fast becoming the admiration of lovers of the fine arts throughout the country.
The affluents of Sugar creek from the north are Lye creek and Black creek; and from the southeast Walnut fork, Offield and In- dian creeks. The south and the southeastern parts of the county are drained by Big and Little Raccoon creeks, and the northwest by Coal creek, which flows into the Wabash. These streams are fed the year round by almost countless numbers of cold, clear springs. which burst from their banks or fall in beautiful cascades from ma- jestic cliffs that rise here and there, high above their beds. The channels of most of these streams are deep. and afford the best of drainage for the whole county.
The water-power of Sugar creek is of great importance to the
2
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
county, and, besides running the machinery of Yount's celebrated woolen factory at Yountsville, four miles west of Crawfordsville, it keeps running, all the year round, numerous grist and saw mills, which produce great quantities of flour and lumber. The disciples of Izaak Walton take from its clear waters many fine bass and other kinds of excellent fish during all the fishing season.
The surface of the county is pleasantly diversified. The western part, near the principal streams, is broken and hilly; in the north and center it is generally rolling, and at the east and southeast flat and level. Along the northern border are many small and fertile prai- ries. Most of the county was originally covered with the heaviest growth of poplar, walnut, oak, beech, and sugar maple, many groves of the last named being yet preserved, and from which large quanti- ties of molasses and sugar are yearly made.
The soil of Montgomery county is everywhere fertile, and under good cultivation yields most abundant crops of wheat, corn, oats, hay, etc. The best elass of farmers seldom raise less than twenty five bushels of wheat and sixty bushels of corn to the acre; and often as high as forty of the former and eighty of the latter. Many parts of the county are also noted for fine pastures of blue-grass, which usually remain green and luxuriant throughout the spring and summer months ; and the fall growth often makes the finest win- ter pasturage. The farmers of the county are just fairly beginning to learn the great value of blue-grass, and the adaptation of the soil to its growth.
The following table, published by Prof. Collett in his geological report, shows the approximate altitude of various points in the county, and also the height above Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Lafayette :
TABLE OF ALTITUDES, ABOVE THE OCEAN.
Crawfordsville. 749
Linden
763
Divide seven miles north of Crawfordsville 799
Darlington. 752
Mace. 788
New Ross
838
Ladoga.
820
Waveland. 694
598
Alamo.
.839
Glacial moraines near Alamo. 870
Waynetown. 735
Indianapolis. 698
Terre Haute. 494
Lafayette 538
Bodine's mills on Sugar creek.
3
ALTITUDES ABOVE THE OCEAN.
It will be observed from this table that the general surface of the county is much above Indianapolis, Terre Haute or Lafayette. Its high position and superior drainage constitute a perpetual guaranty against the malignant types of malarial diseases, and the inhabitants of the county, as might be expected, are healthy, robust and full of energy.
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